Arrakis – Italian Tobacco Flavor E-Liquid Review

Arrakis has a unique aroma enriched by cardamom and clove notes, typical of the best quality Italian tobacco. This E-liquid is intense yet balanced, characterized by an amazing flavor of toast and aromatic wood. Arrakis is well suited for your all time vape of the day and is ideal for a quick, satisfying smoke.

As a vaper who has been at this little hobby for almost four years and a reviewer for nearly 18 months, it’s quite rare for me to see anything that hasn’t been done before. A flavor like Pina Colada can differ wildly from one vendor to the next, but that’s not the kind of variety I’m talking about here. I’m talking about something entirely new, with bold, unexpected combinations of flavors. Something that is skillfully built from the ground up to create a juice the likes of which the vaping community as a whole is unaccustomed to. Those big, new ideas are rapidly (and sadly) becoming a thing of the past. I received the latest collection of juice from Cloud Alchemist and couldn’t wait to get started reviewing Arrakis. I thought about the juice quite a bit during the three weeks long steeping process, but I continued to have a hard time wrapping my head around the idea of a spicy menthol forward clove based e-liquid.

When the day finally arrived that the Arrakis was ready for review, I woke up, took care of the usual morning routine, and went straight for the steeping drawer to retrieve the bottle that had been the subject of hours upon hours of curiosity. Since every bottle spends the final night of steeping uncapped, my steeping drawer will usually smell like whatever juice is ready for review, and I gotta say, that morning, the whole room smelled quite intriguing, with about a 50/50 split of deep Woody tobacco spiced with cardamom and clove to a blend of the two spice traits of cardamom and clove .

I opted to start the review process by running this juice through a mech mod/RBA (Bilby from Slumberland Industries, twisted 28ga kanthal coil at .7Ω, on XC-116 wick) first, to get a general feel for the flavors before moving it into the standard reviewing rig for a more in-depth analysis. I was concerned that the more extreme wattage might be a bit much for the Arrakis, but the flavor was not only intriguing, but it was also truly divine.

I had been expecting a strong tobacco flavor upfront, with the tobacco coming through on the back end, but instead, the juice has a surprisingly cohesive profile throughout the entirety of the vape, with all flavors presenting at a seemingly even ratio. It’s easy enough to pick out the individual flavors from the blend, but there is a sense of unity as if the flavors were meant to be together. The tobacco flavor is relatively mild, in a classic Italian tobacco style, with a subtle earthy flavor.

It’s complimented beautifully by the cardamom and clove notes that define the flavor style, all of which come together to help highlight the spice, cardamom notes. What I find most impressive about Cloud Alchemist’s Arrakis, in addition to the original best e-juice creation itself, is the way the tobacco and spice seem to play off one another. First you taste the cardamom and tobacco, a moment later the clove, and then immediately, it all just melds seamlessly into this singular flavor with the deep, earthy lows from the tobacco and cardamom, alongside the bright, sweet tones from the clove, and a graceful sense of balance is achieved as the light acidity from the spicy cuts through the sticky spicy cardamom .

Overall, this is one of the more interesting and complex flavored e-juices I’ve reviewed. The flavors play exceptionally well together in both high mechanical wattage (25 w) rig and more conventional set-ups. In a standard dripping atomizer with a VV/VW mod, the sweet spot is all about preference. At lower wattage, the blueberry is bigger, bolder, and brighter with the tobacco, cardamom mix that is citrusy, minty and spicy riding shotgun. If you want a more Italian tobacco-centric profile from this juice, cranking up the wattage a bit will help to coax those flavors into the driver’s seat. I preferred it at 4.8v on a 2.5Ω atomizer yielding a total of 9.2 watts. This produces a good sense of parity among the premium e-liquid flavors, in addition to a moderate throat hit, and a thick, dense cloud of vapor.